 Castle Vineyards
The third winery in the complex that was open for the event was Castle with wine tasting once again in the winery. There was a very talented guitarist providing a nice background to the event, catered food to sample with wines, and very cheerful, helpful staff pouring at multiple stations to keep service fast and informative. Castle is known for its award winning Pinot Noir, but has received recognition for their other vineyard designated wines as well. We enjoyed the Zinfandel from Sonoma Valley with its intense black fruit and spiciness with some good baking spice and nice structure. We also found the Syrah Rose to be exceptional with its big good acidity, tart red fruit and long, lingering finish.
Tasting for the winery is usually done at its facility at the Plaza in the city of Sonoma, just up the road from the winery. The tasting room is open daily from 10:00 to 5:00 and charges a small $5 that will be happily refunded with the purchase of just one bottle of wine.
 After Castle Vineyards we jumped back in the car and headed south on 8th street then east on Highway 12 and south on 121 to Cline Cellars. Cline is a winery known for its great big, powerful Zinfandels as well as their Ancient Vine Mourvedre and Carignan. The estate in Carneros covers 350 acres and offers a whole wine adventure at the large farm house styled tasting room, beautifully landscaped grounds and event facilities. There are six spring-fed ponds, over 5000 rose bushes and even a California Missions Museum for your enjoyment. This is truly a spot that you can go with your children and they will have lots of things to keep them busy.
Cline was all decked out for the occasion and offered a number of different experiences for the wine adventurer. We went first to the tent set up with a selection of Zinfandel and Syrah wines and cheese provided by Carneros Cave Cheese to taste and purchase. There was also handcrafted foods for purchase from Artisan Foods. After tasting in the tent we went on to another tent where they were offering their Ancient Vine Carignane to taste and that a cooking class with Truffle Pizzetta that went beautifully with the wine. This wine, we felt, is particularly inexpensive and fun for the price and absolutely worth trying. Their Ancient Vine Mourvedre has been quite an award winner and another unusual wine everyone should try once.
 From Cline we went on to Viansa Winery for an interesting experience to say the least. The winery sits at the southern end of the Sonoma side of the AVA on top of a small hill with breathtaking views in every direction. This is truly a wine estate done in a massive Italian villa style with caves, huge patios, formal gardens and a full Italian market inside the tasting room with bars at either end of the massive room. The winery has been very active in the environment of the region being responsible for the restoration and preservation of the accompanying wetlands.
After ascending the stairs from the parking lot to the patio outside the tasting room we tried to figure out if they were doing a special tasting for the event, such as the food paired with wines, but we couldn’t find anything. There was a tent set up outside, but it was empty. We moved into the tasting room figuring that we could at least do a standard tasting. We stepped up to the first tasting bar and stood there for at least five minutes and could not get anyone to acknowledge us, not even when the people they had been waiting on walked away. Rather than say anything, we decided to go to the other tasting bar and see what would happen. Same thing, no one ever even looked up at us although they were happily chatting with the few other people who were at the bar. We have visited hundreds of tasting rooms, as you may have guessed, and that has only happened to us one other time, at a tasting room in Lake Tahoe. I’m sure this was the result of a busy day, but it was very strange for such a widely acclaimed winery, especially since it wasn’t even 2:00 in the afternoon. We were pretty much just puzzled by the experience. We are resolved to come back on a standard tasting day and give it another try. Continued... |
